Our Team

Dean Mitchell, Director
Mitchell is the former executive director of the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce where he was responsible for the overall operations of the chamber and supported the chamber on projects related to economic, community and workforce development. Before joining the chamber, he served as chief of staff and communications director for two U.S. congressmen. Mitchell led in the fields of management, strategic planning, communications and problem-solving. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia. Mitchell is also a graduate of the Institute of Organizational Management, Dothan 101, Leadership Dothan and Leadership Alabama. He received his Alabama-accredited chamber executive certification and was named the 2022 chamber professional of the year for Alabama. He and his wife, Maggie, have three sons.

Ann Carr, Economic Development Associate
Ann Carr is responsible for coordinating the Economic Development mission’s work for HudsonAlpha Wiregrass, which includes entrepreneur- and recruitment-based economic development efforts to benefit the Wiregrass region, with the focus involving the agriculture and agtech sectors. Carr worked as the Executive Director for Southeast AlabamaWorks, Inc. for the last two years, where she worked with key workforce, economic and elected officials to meet workforce and economic needs for the ten-county region. Carr previously worked for Wallace Community College and the Alabama Department of Labor Career Center Systems. Carr is a graduate of the University of Alabama.

Business Recruitment Specialist
Barb Malchow is the Business Recruitment Specialist for the HudsonAlpha Wiregrass team. She will be assisting with the recruitment based economic development efforts to benefit the Wiregrass region, with the focus involving the agtech and innovation technology sectors. Malchow moved to Dothan in 2023 after spending 27 years in the Midwest. Her previous career experiences include corporate communications and marketing, education, and office coordination for an agriculture manufacturing research facility. The native Floridian has lived in five states and has bachelor’s degrees from the University of Alabama and Upper Iowa University. She and her husband, Steve, have one son, Bryce.

Madison Ward
In her role, Madison works on research, social media, and administrative functions for the HudsonAlpha Wiregrass team. Ward previously worked as an intern for Southeast AlabamaWorks doing social media design and outreach. Ward will graduate in the summer of 2024 with a degree in Global Business Marketing from Troy University.

Aubri Simpkins
Aubri Simpkins comes to HudsonAlpha from the Enterprise School System, where she has taught since 2023. Before that, she taught at Andalusia High School for eight years. She becomes the fifth HudsonAlpha employee working full-time in the Wiregrass. A native of Andalusia, Simpkins earned her bachelor’s degree in biology/biomedical sciences from Troy University and her master’s in education and biology at Auburn-Montgomery.

Catherine Davis
Davis does the bulk of her work in the Clevenger Lab and will be working with Khufu, a genotyping platform designed by Drs. Josh Clevenger and Walid Korani. Davis manages Khufu sequencing data for all HudsonAlpha Wiregrass peanut breeding sub-programs from receiving and processing. She also works closely with Dr. Korani to deliver long-term development projects to help improve the Khufu environment and associated programs and pipelines.

Davis is a military veteran and came to HudsonAlpha from Southeast Health and Flowers Hospital. Before that, she worked for the U.S. Army in several different roles, received several commendations and was named Distinguished Leader and Soldier of the Year. Davis earned her bachelor’s degree in biology/biomedical sciences and her master’s in computer science from Troy University.

Aliyah Shine, Entrepreneur Program Specialist
Aliyah Shine joins HudsonAlpha Wiregrass as the new Entrepreneur Program Specialist, bringing over a decade of experience in helping small businesses and startups grow and thrive. A seasoned entrepreneur and passionate advocate for economic development, Aliyah recently relocated from Northern California to the Wiregrass, where she has deep family roots. After dedicating the last few years to raising her four young children, she’s excited to return to her professional mission of supporting entrepreneurs in reaching their goals.

Dustin Herring, Agricultural Project Manager
Dustin Herring joins HudsonAlpha Wiregrass as the Agricultural Project Manager. A native of Hartford, he earned both his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Auburn University, where his education included fieldwork studying the economic impact of nematodes in peanuts and cotton, as well as instructing graduate classes in plant pathology.

Herring’s responsibilities will include managing field research on the WIREGRASS Peanut Project and collaborating with HudsonAlpha’s economic development team to evaluate agricultural technologies and their applicability to local farms and farmers. He is the ninth employee of HudsonAlpha Wiregrass, a public-private collaboration between the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the City of Dothan established in 2022.

Yanbing Wang, Senior Scientist
In June 2025, Dr. Yanbing Wang joined the Clevenger Lab at HudsonAlpha as a Senior Scientist, where she now leads research on the WIREGRASS Peanut Project. Her work is focused on driving agricultural innovation and improving crops—especially peanuts—through transformative, data-driven science that supports farmers and strengthens food systems.

Dr. Wang is a plant biologist with deep expertise in plant reproduction, seed biology and fruit development. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Agronomy in 2006, followed by a Ph.D. in Crop Genetics and Breeding from China Agricultural University in 2012. Her early research at Peking University explored key mechanisms of plant reproduction and seed development. Dr. Wang continued her scientific journey as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona and then as a postdoc, research scientist and staff scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. Most recently, she specialized in tomato fruit development at the University of Georgia, combining molecular biology and bioinformatics to unlock new insights into crop improvement.

Want to know more about HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology Wiregrass?